Maintain motivation

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Cavesa
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Re: Maintain motivation

Postby Cavesa » Wed Aug 05, 2015 10:12 am

Languages are one of my main procrastination tools. I hate what I normally study 90% of the time or more. I need motivation and discipline to stay away from languages, when there are university exams and such things going on. Like for example now. :-D
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Re: Maintain motivation

Postby Kazumi » Wed Aug 05, 2015 1:35 pm

An excellent question for all subjects that many people are interested in.

Assuming that you are talking about how to re-ignite that internal motivation that you once felt, we have to consider a couple of things here.

This situation can be analog to the sine wave (sinusoid) oscillation. We all have our “down times” due to many causes such as strain and stress due to the overwork, family issues (spouse, child etc) and so on which affects our time management. When prolonged, it might be the cause that some people find difficult to overcome and consequently stagnate almost in the bottom of the sinusoid for a while.

When I am almost near the bottom, I ask myself: “Why did I decide to learn this and that language?". For each target language of mine, I have had different reasons to start learning it. Basically I can say that I am interested in reading, watching, listening and sometimes talking about different fields of my interest such as Social Sciences, Humanities, Natural Sciences, Formal Sciences and so on. For example, recently I was reading about the history of mathematics in English, instead of reading its translation in Japanese. It was fun to see some specific terminology. I also finished reading a book on recreational mathematics and curious word problems in Chinese (for children).

Another way to re-ignite the fires might be to give yourself a long term goal, or even a bucket list of the things you want to do with say your Italian, French or Mandarin studies in a short period of time. You can reward yourself every time you accomplish the goal. It works for some people and I myself follow it for the languages that I learn for professional reasons only. Every time I accomplish my small goals, I tell myself "okay, now I can drink a pint of beer from Europe". Okay, aside from this joke, in fact, I do something like this: "so, what is the next book I am going to purchase or borrow from the libraries?".

More specifically on Mandarin, you can always try watching documentaries or reading about China and Taiwan if you are interested in the latter country. You can always explore the literature (classical Chinese literature is worth reading IMHO; you can read it in Modern Chinese if you don't want to go deep into the old Chinese), traditional music and dance, arts (painting, calligraphy, performance arts), martial arts, architecture, cuisine or perhaps games. I am not talking about “computer games” with that trendy high definition stuff etc, but about 象棋 (Xiangqi) and 麻将 (“Mahjong”), for example. When I learned how to play Shogi (Japanese variant of “chess”), I started reading about Japanese history from another point of view that it is not taught in schools. I used to play with older men and I learned many words from their dialects as they came from different regions in Japan. They used to teach me about the relation of Shogi, sake, honorifics and other cultural and linguistic-related aspects that has been used throughout the history in Japan. I learned how to read many surnames and names because of that "game" without having noticing it because everything was fun to me.

If you are into traveling, that could be a "goal". I have always been curious about Taiwan, so, I kept looking on 國立故宮博物院 (National Palace Museum) before visiting the country. It is one of the greatest museums I have ever been to (together with the Hermitage, Louvré, the British Museum and a couple of others). Since I am into less popular cultures and languages, I visited a small museum related to Taiwanese “aborigine’s people” which is just about 250 meters from the National Palace Museum. I have noticed that if you know Mandarin, I could explore more what the Aborigine's people think as most translations in English are still really low quality according to some local people I talked to.

Even if you don't have any realistic plans about visiting Taiwan (and China), you can always explore how Chinese civilization has influenced some East and Southeast Asian countries throughout the history, when Vietnam borrowed the Chinese system and why they replaced to another writing system.

And finally (yes, I know, this is too long...), despite agreeing that learning a language is a long time commitment, I don’t keep myself any specific goals to most languages as they are just a hobby for me. If you are not into goals, then, you can perhaps just let things keep flowing without stressing about the time and external things. If I am not wrong, Iguanamon was the one who posted about “Zen habits” in the old forum, but I could find his topic. Some interesting thoughts are described here:
http://zenhabits.net/no-goal/
http://zenhabits.net/goal-less/
http://zenhabits.net/100-days/
http://zenhabits.net/achieving/
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Re: Maintain motivation

Postby emk » Wed Aug 05, 2015 1:51 pm

Cavesa wrote:Languages are one of my main procrastination tools. I hate what I normally study 90% of the time or more. I need motivation and discipline to stay away from languages, when there are university exams and such things going on. Like for example now. :-D

I am reminded of this very funny essay on "structured procrastination" by a university professor:

The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.

...

The trick is to pick the right sorts of projects for the top of the list. The ideal sorts of things have two characteristics, First, they seem to have clear deadlines (but really don’t). Second, they seem awfully important (but really aren’t). Luckily, life abounds with such tasks. In universities the vast majority of tasks fall into this category, and I’m sure the same is true for most other large institutions.

Personally, I use several techniques to maintain motivation:

  1. 30 day "trials", as suggested by a productivity blogger.
  2. I've used Beeminder ("goal tracking with a sting") for important goals where I was willing to put $5 on the line. Even though the Beeminder people are very nice, I'm too proud to let $5 slip through my fingers!
  3. Challenges. The Super Challenge was a big help, because I pretty much needed to read a certain number of pages each month.
  4. Lots and lots of "motivation"—fun native materials, interesting real-world usage, and so on. I do know how to rely on pure discipline, but it's annoying, and it's a finite resource, so I prefer to let natural enthusiasm do most of the work.
  5. An understanding that it's OK for activity to vary. Some months I don't do much. Other months I do a lot. And I'm OK with that. Sometimes, I just want to go kayaking instead. :-)
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Re: Maintain motivation

Postby Serpent » Wed Aug 05, 2015 2:58 pm

Timeboxing is also great, although I don't do it enough. Don't aim to finish a lesson (especially longer than those in Assimil), aim to study for 20-45 min and definitely don't feel bad if something is more difficult than you thought, or too easy/boring.

The 20-hour technique is an alternative to the 30 day one. You set a specific small goal and you stay on track even if you lose a day here and there :)
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Re: Maintain motivation

Postby neofight78 » Wed Aug 05, 2015 7:06 pm

Serpent wrote:I don't believe in discipline, only in dedication. Well, you need discipline if you have to learn a language you hate.


Dedication and commitment is the way to go. But of course you can't magic it out of thin air (or at least I can't). Both motivation and discipline are temporary, the novelty wears off and the will power fades. But if you can alternate between them enough, they will help you to grow and protect that sustainable dedication and commitment that is more permanent and more fundamental.

You could think of them as three friends. All friends but in different ways:

  • Motivation - He's your partying friend, great fun to be with but not always there when you need him, and sometimes you end up with a hangover.

  • Discipline - He's not your most interesting friend, but always helps you out, and you always feel a bit guilty asking for help because you don't like to hang out with him too often.

  • Dedication - He's your best friend, maybe not as fun as Mr Motivation, maybe not a practical as Mr Discipline, but somehow you always end up spending time together over the years.

BTW I'm aiming for most tenuous analogy of the year award... 8-)
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Re: Maintain motivation

Postby iguanamon » Wed Aug 05, 2015 7:43 pm

I've been following Leo Babauta of zenhabits and posting about his blog for years on HTLAL. The no goals post Nieng Zhonghan linked to is one of my favorites. I don't present this as the solution or THE answer. I present it as an alternative to consider.

Leo Babauta wrote:...In the past, I’d set a goal or three for the year, and then sub-goals for each month. Then I’d figure out what action steps to take each week and each day, and try to focus my day on those steps.

Unfortunately, it never, ever works out this neatly. You all know this. You know you need to work on an action step, and you try to keep the end goal in mind to motivate yourself. But this action step might be something you dread, and so you procrastinate. You do other work, or you check email or Facebook, or you goof off.

And so your weekly goals and monthly goals get pushed back or side-tracked, and you get discouraged because you have no discipline. ... So now what? Well, you review your goals and reset them. You create a new set of sub-goals and action plans. You know where you’re going, because you have goals!

Of course, you don’t actually end up getting there. Sometimes you achieve the goal and then you feel amazing. But most of the time you don’t achieve them and you blame it on yourself.

Here’s the secret: the problem isn’t you, it’s the system! Goals as a system are set up for failure.


I know this is antithetical to the HTLAL mindset and progress bars and the like, but this is what I do and how I achieve without them. I do what I love and I tolerate what I don't because I know it will get me to where I want to be. I have no deadline. I don't have to learn "X" in three months, or else! I didn't post on HTLAL asking the forum to choose my language(s), my languages chose me. So, there's my motivation. I do it because I want to do it.

Leo Babauta wrote:...So what does a life without goals look like? In practice, it’s very different than one with goals.

You don’t set a goal for the year, nor for the month, nor for the week or day. You don’t obsess about tracking, or actionable steps. You don’t even need a to-do list, though it doesn’t hurt to write down reminders if you like.

What do you do, then? Lay around on the couch all day, sleeping and watching TV and eating Ho-Hos? No, you simply do. You find something you’re passionate about, and do it. Just because you don’t have goals doesn’t mean you do nothing — you can create, you can produce, you can follow your passion. ...


Of course, no one is ga ga over memorization, dictionary look-ups, verb conjugation tables, grammar rules, etc. These are steps I must master, in order for me to have a next language. I love them because I am passionate about the languages I have learned and keep learning. As I said before, my eyes are on the prize.

Can discipline and order work? Yes, of course it can. Expugnator wouldn't be where he is now without it. The thing is, is it making you happy? If it is, keep on keeping on! If not, well, only you can answer that for yourself. If it isn't, there is another way to consider and it has worked for me. If learning a language is not your passion... YMMV.
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Re: Maintain motivation

Postby tangleweeds » Wed Aug 05, 2015 9:14 pm

My problem is that when I commit to doing something daily, and succeed at make myself do it long term, the deepest outcome is that I come to hate whatever it was I used to love (enough to want to commit to doing it daily!). I did this to playing music, which has to be the most fun activity I've ever engaged in. For several years running i made a personal commitment to play music daily, and turned it into something I dreaded doing. Clearly something went wrong there.

Studying Irish has been the successor to recreational abstract math and perspective in urban sketching, as studies I've taken up in the meantime to let my musical life detox from the Must Play Every Day Debacle.

So I find the (new to me) Zen habits model interesting.
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